Preliminary analysis of the dynamic heliosphere by MHD simulations
- Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 (United States)
- Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Hakozaki, Fukuoka 812-8581 (Japan)
A preliminary analysis of the dynamic heliosphere to estimate the termination shock (TS) distance from the sun around the time when Voyager 1 passed the termination shock at December 16, 2004 is performed by using MHD simulations. For input to this simulation, we use the Voyager 2 solar-wind data. We first find a stationary solution of the 3-D outer heliosphere by assigning a set of LISM parameters as our outer boundary conditions and then the dynamical analysis is performed. The model TS crossing is within 6 months of the observed date. The TS is pushed outward every time a high ram-pressure solar wind pulse arrives. After the end of the high ram-pressure wind, the TS shock shrinks inward. When the last Halloween event passed through the TS at DOY 250, 2004, the TS began to shrink inward very quickly and the TS crossed V1. The highest inward speed of the TS is over 400 km/s. The high ram-pressure solar wind transmitted through the TS becomes a high thermal-pressure plasma in the heliosheath, acting to push the TS inward. This suggests that the position of the TS is determined not only by the steady-state pressure balance condition between the solar wind ram-pressure and the LISM pressure, but by the dynamical ram pressure too. The period when the high ram-pressure solar wind arrives at the TS shock seems to correspond to the period of the TS particle event (Stone et al, 2005, Decker et al., 2005). The TS crossing date will be revised in future simulations using a more appropriate set of parameters for the LISM. This will enable us to undertake a detailed comparison of the simulation results with the TS particle events.
- OSTI ID:
- 20888299
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 858, Issue 1; Conference: 5. annual IGPP international astrophysics conference: Physics of the inner heliosheath - Voyager observations, theory, and future prospects, Oahu, HI (United States), 3-9 Mar 2006; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2359306; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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